10 Most Convincing Movie Psychopath Performances

5. Joe Pesci - Goodfellas

Joe Pesci is the leading light in what must be regarded as one of, if not the finest gangster flicks around. Pesci executes the New Jersey accent with perfection, also tying together violent tendencies, a love of money and an unpredictable nature in the process. For such a little guy, few gangsters have been more intimidating. You don't want to cross Tommy DeVito, or you could well end up getting whacked. He owns each and every scene that he's in, leaving the viewer endlessly tense as we worry for the safety of everybody around him. Particularly psychotic scenes include DeVito savagely stabbing a man in the trunk of his car and then cracking wise as he and his pals bury the body, with nothing but the car's rear lights for company. Probably the film's most iconic scene, 'funny how?', sees Pesci expertly flitting between comedian and nut-case; a scene which he wrote himself. The actors around him proabably didn't have to work too hard to look genuinely uneasy while in his presence.
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Recent English graduate and Newcastle United nut. Rom-Com enthusiast, Bob Dylan fan-boy and expert poacher of eggs.